Absolute Favorite Books

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Blog Tour -- Life Blood by HK Savage (with Giveaway)

What if we knew how to live forever? Is any cost too great?

Ava Brandt has been plagued with indecision her entire life; her direction influenced by the people around her, not her heart. When a chance encounter with a stranger challenges everything she thought she remembered from her frightening past, she must confront hidden memories to survive.

Ben Pearson, descendent of a famous physician, is living proof of his ancestor’s miraculous discovery two hundred years ago. Through a combination of blood transfusions from unsuspecting donors, he

uncovered his own fountain of youth. As an unwilling convert, Ben continues to fight for those who are dying; their murderers content to kill innocents to prolong their own lives, no matter the human cost.

Finally accepting the truth of her past and the dreams that have plagued her, Ava comes face to face with her fears. But just as she comes to terms with this new reality and new feelings for her ageless

rescuer, she finds herself in the middle of a battle that has raged and claimed untold young lives for centuries.

His voice stirred something in Ava’s mind. It was something distant and foggy, but it nagged at her nonetheless. Interested, Ava laid the dresses on the bench in the fitting room and followed the sound.

Elle’s was a small shop, it wasn’t more than a half a dozen paces from the fitting room to the front of the store where Elle and the delivery guy were talking. Ava walked out the open door and stared at him curiously. The man was not their delivery guy. The visitor wore a black sport coat, not a t-shirt professing freaky fast service. He was facing Ava, and looked up curiously at her sudden appearance.

Ava’s world stopped as she stared at the pair of eyes she had seen so many times in her dreams. It has been sixteen years since she’s seen them while awake. A surreal mixing of reality with fantasy as her dreams intruded upon her waking state. The man stared, blinking back at her. Memory had not given her a recollection of the features of her dream man, but when he turned away, his profile was exactly as she remembered it.

Elle turned to follow the man’s gaze and her eyes widened just as Ava’s knees buckled and her world blackened around her. Her dreams came rushing up to meet her.The room was dark but for the lights at the table nearby. Illuminated by the glow was the silhouette of a man hunched over a metal table. Light cast the liquids in the bottles in front of him as dancing shadows projected onto the ceiling above. The sounds coming from the hunkering figure were mumbled in a language unintelligible to the young Ava lying on the table behind him. Hands shifting something around on the table making a clinking sound that echoed in the cavernous room.

She was afraid, but the woman who had brought her here told her he was a doctor. She’d given Ava candy while she chalked on the sidewalk in front of her apartment. The neighbor was supposed to be watching her until her mother got home.

Ava had eaten the candy. It tasted bitter, but she didn’t want to say anything or spit it out and hurt the lady’s feelings. She was so pretty she looked like a movie star. Ava remembered her thick, blonde

hair, bright blue eyes and smooth, pale skin were only accented by her one flaw. Her bottom teeth were slightly crooked and pushed out her lower lip when she talked. Ava watched her mouth, mesmerized.

Now, lying on the cool, hard table, she worried her mother would be upset with her for talking to a stranger and for wandering off. She couldn’t remember having done it, but she must have. Here she was.

The mumbling grew louder as the man moved toward her. The lights above him worked to keep his features in shadow. The light attached to his head blinded Ava as she tried to focus on him through the fog of drugs muddling her mind. All she could see was the very outer edge of his

dark hair lending him a dark crown against the light.

She saw a sparkle of light on metal as he held something shiny in one hand and used the other to pull her arm toward him within her restraints. Helpless to struggle, Ava watched. Her limbs felt heavy

and slow within the confines of the straps holding her down. She knew she shouldn’t be letting him touch her. Her instincts told her he was not a good doctor there to help her. Her mother would be very upset with her and Ava worried about telling her. A prick of something sharp stung the inside of her forearm and the man’s breathing sped up in excitement. She could hear a fever behind his muttering that frightened her.

Ava’s eyes were growing heavy again as she watched the doctor hook the tube coming from her arm to a clear plastic bag and lay it on a little table below her. The tube filled with a dark liquid and she couldn’t tell if it was coming or going. Her body got colder and her teeth began to chatter in the icy chamber. Sleep begged to pull her down into total darkness and Ava’s lids slid closed.

A sudden bang brought Ava back to consciousness and she heard the doctor yelling over her. The light from his head was aimed past her and she craned her neck to see.

A thin beam of light shone through a door she hadn’t realized was there, and another form was advancing toward them rapidly, holding a flashlight.

“Give me the girl,” the newcomer shouted furiously, the threat of violence from him clear. Ava was scared all over again and her tired heart tried to beat faster, making her dizzy. She watched entranced as the angry man approached her .

The doctor’s headlamp lit upon the face of the angry man. His eyes were dark and his strong features set in anger, but they were fixed on the doctor, not Ava.

HK Savage has been a voracious reader of anything she could get her hands on going back to the second grade when she would set her alarm two hours early to read before school. Her passion for the written word has continued and flowed into writing going back nearly as far. Her books have fans in twenty countries on six continents with hopes of attracting attention on Antarctica if for no other reason than to check a box.

Currently, HK is a mother, wife and black belt in Karate as well as an avid dressage rider. Her three dogs: a Doberman she uses for therapy dog work and two ancient Doxies keep her busy when she is not writing or working or whatever else.

In addition to editing for the past ten years in advertising, HK has been an editor for several newsletters over the years; her favorite being for Heifer International where her ideas were put into effect and complimented by those on high. Currently her skills are being focused on clients in the writing world.

Paranormal is her favorite genre and science fiction because both address the possibilities we have not yet realized and the darker things we have. Her favorite premise: “what if?”

2016 Reading Challenge

Latest Reviews

Well I did NOT see that coming.. wth??? Talk about out of left field and no where near the radar!!!
Uncovered picks up where book 1 left off. It jumps right in and keeps on going. This is not a stand alone, and you must read book 1 in o...

Full review to come.... Must read book 2... Holy hell what a cliff hanger!!!!
Edited -- May 25, 2015
OK, now that I have finished book 2, I can sit down and gather my thoughts in order to get the reviews written.
This is the debut b...